Grapple and Grunt

There's a interesting article in this morning's Bradford Telegraph about last Saturday's visit to the Coral Windows Stadium by Hereford United.

As well as mentioning the £1 deal for Bradford supporters it also reveals that the Hereford squad stayed in a hotel in the area the previous evening whilst another sporting event was taking place.

Here's a few paragraphs:

The small knot of Hereford fans did not even make up one per cent of a crowd figure far and away the best in League Two this season.

But the 111 of an extraordinary 17,014 will probably argue that they still got their money’s worth from paying the full whack.

While everyone else got in for a £1 – swelling the regular attendance by around 7,000 extras – the travelling supporters had coughed up the usual £20 admission.

For that they got the point that they would have settled for before leaving home early that morning.

Hereford boss Jamie Pitman, showing little sign of the pressure building up over his own position, said: “If you don’t want to play in games like this with that crowd, then you’ve a problem.

“We’re used to (crowds of) 2,500 people but this is what you’re in football for. The lads showed really good character to come through because there was a really good atmosphere.”

Hereford had shared the Cedar Court hotel the night before with a cage-fighting competition. Their approach certainly packed plenty of grapple and grunt.

The Bulls came to kill the game and smother City with their five-man midfield. It was a job they did well.

The Hereford fans, who had earlier cheekily chanted “we forgot that you were here”, had got some reward from their day out. They will be back for more.

You wonder how many of the floating fans in the home stands will feel the same.

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